Song reviews

Bar-L is one Her Majesty’s holiday camps, in case you were wondering, so credit is due to The Skunnered for using it as a somewhat unusual inspiration for a song. Wry lyrics that would be Americana if this were Travis County instead of dear old Glasgow town carry this song along in a way that Ray Davies would surely approve of and I have to admit that I was soon singing the Bar-L Blues myself.

A bit retro and more than a bit rough around the edges, A Winters Education push their song “Swindling Sisters”, probably deliberately, into sub Smiths territory.  With a bit of tidying up, they could escape mere revivalism with this one. After all, that worked for the Felt Tips.

Minimalist electronic doodlings from what appears to be a one man and a laptop band from Birmingham, “North” sounds like a low budget Vangelis style soundtrack cue for the kind of movie that only ever got released on VHS and is none the worse for being that.

Full of mellow grooviness and seasoned with a tablespoonful of reverb, “The Coldest Corner” sounds like it has been pulled out a late sixties movie soundtrack and I reckon you will probably have to be of a certain age (or beyond) to fully appreciate this song. One to enjoy with a nice cup of tea methinks.

“Cruise Elroy” has an endearing, half way through a journey to retro radio friendliness, simplicity like, say, a cut back Weezer.  It is a demo so the songs suffers from a flat mix and it does drag on past its sell by date somewhat but if they polish it up then it should do just fine.

A rare occasion when a woman’s touch makes no perceptible difference at all, Elisa Luu’s “Se fosse per me” sounds like any other bit of sequenced serendipity determined to wander the airwaves without direction. Bedsit electronica, I know thy name!

I was just thinking that there must be some way to make the incredibly unadventurous indie rock genre more interesting and along comes Bristol band Call The Doctor. “Seventeen” would have been a dull thing indeed if it were not for the dramatic yet poised vocals of Patti Aberhart. Yes, add a girl with some undeniable style and indie rock gets interesting. Who would have figured that? Apart from me that is.

Not much to go on here apart from the info that JJ Quinlan is an Irishman now settled in Israel. Possibly the fun packed political situation in that part of the world inspired the earnest sentiments of “Revolution Road” if not its straight down the road eighties rock feel. Nice, fluid guitar work though that reminded me a bit of JJ Gilmour.

Had to listen to this one twice (which actually wasn’t too much of a hardship). “Leave It ‘Til Tomorrow” seems to be the work of a modern day Swedish band but sounds more like it had fallen off an album by an American seventies soft rock band like The Doobie Brothers. I suspect that you may have to be of a certain age or greater to get this type of music but it is nicely done here.

Retro time again with heavily sequenced eighties electro rock getting resurrected by Portland band Endless Loop. “Uniform” works out pretty well for them with appealing girl (Samantha Hughes) boy (Jeff Knight) voices emoting suitably bleak and disaffected words.  The past might well be their future.

Italians just have more style. It’s a simple fact and “La Processione” provides ample proof of that. It is nothing more than indie rock but nonetheless swaggers mercilessly under the weight of its inherent refrigerator coolness with Luigi Bruno’s vocals talking the talk while the rest of the band walk the walk. Almost as good as a Fiat Dino Coupé.

Though they appear to hail from Edinburgh, Who’s Edna sound more than a bit mainstream American reminding me here of bands like The Hush Sound.  “Hellbent” uses a piano to good effect to lift this mid paced rock song out of the mire of mediocrity and there is endearing normality – for want of a better word – to the female vocals.